Compo
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Posts posted by Compo
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15 hours ago, Deepdene Boy said:
I'd still rather have unsightly wind farms than a bloody great nuclear power station with all their inherent risks.
We've had the Dounreay nuclear site up here since the 1950s and the only problems were caused by people not following the rules in the early days. Dounreay brought badly needed investment into a depopulating area and stabilised the county for the duration of the site. It is still the biggest employer in the area. Windfarms on the other hand, have brought destruction of peat lands, deforestation and landscape devaluation. They provide big profits for a few, big bills for the many and practically no jobs after construction. I'd rather take my chances with the nuclear site, as would many up here.
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Not so nice when yet another wind farm plan is announced. It is now very difficult to get a photo of the countryside without one in view. There are 86 just offshore here - soon to be extended to 360!
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Opuntias have edible fruit, Nonna.
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Lovely rock garden, Nonna!
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Berrriedale to Dunbeath extra:
You think you have found a lovely, shady litte stream to follow in a wooded gorge but just twenty paces from where I stood the stream tumbled over the cliff edge as a waterfall.
The stream:
Twenty paces further along it becomes this:
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Berriedale to Dunbeath part 3. Other stuff from the walk:
Part of the seabird colony on An Dun:
Dotted around the 147miles of John O'Groats trail from Inverness to John O'Groats are walkers visitors books. They are contained in boxes like this:
The hole in the drystone wall is known as a "Sheep Creep".
The entrance to Dunbeath castle:
Dunbeath harbour. the end of the walk:
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Berriedale to Dunbeath part 2. The scenery:
Berriedale from the north:
An Dun:
A sea arch:
Close up of the arch:
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Same arch from the north:
Yet another Caithness sea stack:
A lonely house on the hill:
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Saturday morning dawned bright and clear so we took a walk along the Berriedale to Dunbeath clifftops. The weather deteriorated as the morning wore on but we made it to Dunbeath before the thunderstorm broke. Here's a few pictures taken during the walk.
Berriedale to Dunbeath part1. Mostly wildflowers:
A John O'Groats traill marker:
Wildflowers abounded along the walk:
A Spotted Heath Orchid:
Foxgloves and grasses, all in flower. The grass pollen hung like a mist in the air:
A Field Scabious:
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My bike ride this morning produced these two sightings. A Reed Bunting and a Yellowhammer. Sorry abotu the quality but they wouldn't keep still!
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The sun shone yesterday morning so I took advantage of the rare fine day (Heavy rain and lightning later) and did a coastal walk from Beriedale to Dunbeath. The vegetation is now quite tall, so gaps in the clifftop path were difficult to spot and the chance of a plunge down 200+ft of cliff was never far away
I took some photos, many of which I have deleted; the remainder will appear here, perhaps tomorrow. I use RAW format for my photos, so it takes a wee bitty of time to transpose them and edit for posting here. Meanhwile how's this for a lovely piece of treasure trove.... a huge 1½lb puffball fungus. I found it on the walk and have been enjoying puffball with each meal since!
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On wednesday evening I attended a talk by an ex-WWII Stirling heavy bomber pilot, Sqdn Ldr Don Mason DSO DFC L.d'H (Chevalier), BEM. (Retd.)
Just three months away from his 99th birthday, Don gave a magnificent 2½hr illustrated lecture on Bomber crews and their missions during World War Two. He completetd 67 missions over occupied Europe and was shot down twice. He didn't say much about when he was shot down so I tabled a question at the end during the usual "Questions and answers" session. I asked how he was awarded the DSO and DFC. His answer was illuminating and interesting, to say the least:
The first occasion, flak over the Dutch coast smashed his plane's steering gear, destroyed one of the tailplanes and holed the fuselage, causing the plane to take an uncontrollable course directly north up the middle of the North Sea. Without steering control he managed to ditch the plane in the North Sea some 80 miles from the Yorkshire coast. When the crew had all got into the escape dinghy a head count revealed that the navigator was missing. Don then ordered the crew to "Stand off" from the plane as he went back into the sinking aircraft to find the navigator. The navigator had suffered a broken femur and was trapped in his seat, so Don took the emergency axe from its mount and smashed his navigator free before smashing a big enough hole in the fuselage to drag him out and into the sea. All this time the aircraft was filling with water and it was only the wingtip bouyancy tanks and empty fuel tanks that were keeping it afloat. It took him four separate returns to the aircraft before his rescue attempt was complete and then they drifted in the ice cold sea for 56hrs before being picked up by an air-sea rescue launch. For this act he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.
The second time he was shot down his aircraft was attacked by a ME110 nightfighter and four of his crew were killed by the canon fire. He himself suffered a massive head wound (Could still see the scar from eyebrow to back of head) but managed to land the plane at Manston emergency runway. He was hospitalised for nine months before a medical board classed him as fit for service but not for piloting due to damaged peripheral vison in his left eye. He was then offered a choice of a desk job or return to flying service as a WOP-AG (Wireless operator/air gunner). He chose the latter and was stripped of his pilots wings and given a half wing instead.
In his role as wireless operator he saw service through the remainder of the war. On D-Day he was crewing a Sterling heavy bomber that was converted to towing Horsa gliders. At 0630hrs his plane took a glider to France and delivered it to the drop zone to capture a bridge ahead of the main invasion force. Then at 1730 in the evening they went back with another glider, this time containing arms and ammunition. He continued flying supply drops around Nornamdy for the French Resistance and British troops.
On 17th September his crew were detailed to take a troop glider to Arnhem and he made several successful flights in that area until the allies broke through and over the Rhine further south. Meanwhwile he continued dropping arms to the resistance groups throughout Europe.
At the end of the war he was detailed to pick up and return troops that had been prisoners of war of the Japanese in Kuala Lumpur. He said that the troop returns were the saddest of all his flights throughout the war. They were near death and emaciated. When they crossed the Needles on the Isle of Wight, both troops and crew were in tears for the homecoming.
Anyway, I had a great night and if anyone has the chance to see his talk, I can whloeheartedly recommend it. It is part of the nationwide "Their Past, Your Future" project. I just hope that he remembers to pay his television tax so that the BBC can continue to pay their presenters multi-million pound salaries! Let's face it - that's far more important than anything he did for his country........
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Update to the above: Had an email from the Highland Council thanking me for letting them know about the dumping. They will clean up the site within the next few days. I have written to the locl paper and includded a photo of the incident. I have also made it clear that the bill for the clean-up is to be borne by the council and that next time the council make cuts, he/she (The dunmper) will have done more than their share to cause those cuts.
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Went for my usual mornnig bike ride and found that the stupid tw*t who dumps his takeaway boxes and Red Bull tins out of his car at the weekends has struck again but this time not just a single can and box.....there is a pile of Red Bull tins and empty fag packets all dumped in a passing place on one of the single track roads where I usually spot the cast out stuff. I've reported the tipping to "Dumb Dumpers" and it will be removed tomorrow but the point is that every Caithness household has recycle bins that take everything in the pile - so why go to the trouble of dumping in the countryside when you could tip it at home?! Some people should be eliminated!
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That's a good point, DB. I have thought of this and they seem to occur after a cheek or lip bite injury but also when building up to more visitors. I get quite stressed around groups of people.
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Thank for the ulcer tips, gang - tried them all over the years but to no avail. I get an outreak of ulcers about twice a year these days. They are about half the size of a five pence piece at their height and are very painful, expecially when they stick to my teeth in the night. They seem to co-incide with my biting a lip or cheek; so I'm thinking infection after a bite injury. Tried all remedies but they never go until after about two weeks. Just a few days left for this one to run its course........
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Day not going too well...have a huge mouth ulcer just inside my bottom lip and my face is swollen. I was looking forward to a couple of pints in 'spoons 'safto, too.
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GRRRRRRRR! Visitors who can't eat this and won't eat that - then you go to a lot of trouble to cook a feast of things they can/will eat.....they go out and then come back two hours after the time THEY set for it to be ready. THEN they start telling you how you should go about reheating it all because you are doing it wrong! Lose my temper with them? I told them to keep their opinions to themselves in MY kitchen. I was angry.
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My father was stationed at Watnall for some time during WWII and also further down the road at a place that was across the M1 from the brickworks Sadly he is now dead and connot tell any stories of as it was. He was something to do with communications but he never spoke much of his war. He had the Italy star and France & Germany star along with the three standard war medals - so he travellled around a bit.
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A winter squall off Britain's most northerly mainland point, Dunnet Head:
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Winter will soon be with us once again. This was my upper garden in January:
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Surfing in Caithness:
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Afternoon, 3rd July 2015. Dunnet beach north Caithness. Holidays will proceed as booked!
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Glen Feshie (Southern Cairngorms):
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Five years ago today. This is me looking back at the first of three tops on Scaraben, Caithness.
Approaching the main summit of Scaraben:
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Photos to cheer us up
in Photography
Posted
'twould indeed, Barrie.